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For some photographers, no term strikes more fear into one’s heart than “Color Spaces.” The idea that different devices, along with our eyes, perceive light differently can seem confusing. Anyone that has gone to print one of their photographs probably knows that it can take some know-how to ensure your images are correctly represented on paper.
If you’re new to the world of color theory, photographer Forrest Tanaka wants to help: in the 13-minute video above, he explains color spaces in an easy-to-understand way.
Tanaka discusses the ideas behind the visible electromagnetic spectrum and how our eyes perceive the results. The discussion evolves into how color management modules function to try and ensure that color profiles match as closely as possible, and how we can improve their usage.
(via Forrest Tanaka via Reddit)

I'll preface this today by making it clear that I know very little to nothing about architectural retouching, landscape retouching, or product photography retouching. That said, I've dedicated the last two decades to Adobe Photoshop, and the last seven years specifically to portrait retouching. As such, I've come to realize one key thing: If your skin work is no good, everything else in your retouch just falls apart, if you will, as the basic foundation is already substandard.
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For the past few years, video effects specialist Robert McIntosh and another buddy of his have been working on creating a better way for consumers to stabilize video footage. What they’ve developed is a proprietary video stabilization program called ReelSteady. The first consumer version of the software just launched today.
“A lot of people have been asking me how I get my videos to look the way they do,” McIntosh writes. “The answer is not heavy gimbals, or balancing props, or special PID settings. It’s this video stabilization software here. It really does work that good.”
The 2-minute video above is a look at the software’s ability to stabilize shaky and borderline unusable clips.
“One of major selling points is that you can finally stabilize GoPro footage the right way,” McIntosh tells PetaPixel. “We can’t wait to see what the world is going to do with this.”
Here’s

Getting started in photography is expensive. Sometimes frustratingly so. This expense tends to compound a bit if one has to pay professional models to build a portfolio. Fortunately, you don’t. Models also need to build a portfolio, so collaborating with photographers to create images becomes extremely valuable. TFP (time for print, or time for portfolio) has becomes a keystone of the beauty/fashion/glamor world.
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There was a time when I guess you could have called me a wedding photographer. Although at that point you could have really called me an ‘anything’ photographer. It was early in my career. At that point in time I would have photographed a cat eating belly button lint if someone had paid me to do so.
As it turned out, being a wedding photographer didn’t really pop my strobe. I’m more of a problem solving photographer. Planning a shot in advance, scouting, and making it a reality when conditions are right is the kind of creativity I really enjoy investing in my photo shoots.
When I do an architectural shoot I’ll often walk around the building for hours exploring angles and finding the perfect way to fit the structure into the surroundings. On an adventure shoot it’s always about scouting the location and figuring out the perfect time of

There was a time when I guess you could have called me a wedding photographer. Although at that point you could have really called me an ‘anything’ photographer. It was early in my career. At that point in time I would have photographed a cat eating belly button lint if someone had paid me to do so.
As it turned out, being a wedding photographer didn’t really pop my strobe. I’m more of a problem solving photographer. Planning a shot in advance, scouting, and making it a reality when conditions are right is the kind of creativity I really enjoy investing in my photo shoots.
When I do an architectural shoot I’ll often walk around the building for hours exploring angles and finding the perfect way to fit the structure into the surroundings. On an adventure shoot it’s always about scouting the location and figuring out the perfect time of

Instagram's latest update brings a fundamental change with it. Since the app's launch in 2010 users have been limited to posting images in square format. However, today this has changed. After installing version 7.5 of the app, you can post your images in portrait and landscape formats. Read more

Last month we reported on the AstroPad App for the Apple iPad: a solution that allowed you to turn your consumer tablet into a professional graphics tablet when working with applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Illustrator. Now, the company is announcing a new app for the iPhone called AstroPad Mini — it’s everything you love about AstroPad… just minimized.
AstroPad Mini uses the same ‘LIQUID’ platform as its bigger sibling, which allows for extremely fast response times over twice as fast as Apple’s AirPlay technology platform. Accelerated by the graphics processor and optimized code, AstroPad Mini can run at 60fps while maximizing battery life. Of course, if you don’t feel like going wireless, you can always keep your iPhone tethered via USB.
To overcome the shortcomings of the iPhone’s smaller display, AstroPad Mini users can utilize their fingers to pinch in and out or to navigate around

We never thought this day would come, but Instagram now allows you to natively post portrait and landscape oriented photos and video. The days of cropping, white backgrounds, and 640x640 pixel photos and videos are over (unless you don't want them to be).
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Photography has been used in many ways throughout its history: as documentation, propaganda, keepsake, etc. But never has it been so frequently used as a weapon as in the Information Age. As visual communication becomes the de facto language of social media, we can only surmise that we will see more and more examples of using photography for nefarious purposes.
In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag comments: “Photographs of an atrocity may give rise to opposing responses. A call for peace. A cry for revenge. Or simply the bemused awareness, continually restocked by photographic information, that terrible things happen.”
Indeed, war photography has served the purpose of glorifying soldiers (e.g. Roger Fenton) to shocking nations to the horrors of war (e.g. Margaret Bourke-White, Yosuke Yamahata, Nick Ut, et al). But in the 21st century, photographs of an atrocity don’t wait to give rise to

My favorite on the go retouching solution just got even more mobile with Astropad Mini. The creators of Astropad have managed to scale down their app for use with iPhone and even added functionality for the Apple Watch.
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Starting today, Instagram users will no longer be limited to posting square photos. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing company just announced that it is finally enabling support for landscape and portrait format photos and videos.
From its inception back in 2010, Instagram has been known for its recognizable 640×640 filtered photos. But the company is lifting the square aspect ratio restriction in order to help photographers better tell their stories.
“Square format has been and always will be part of who we are,” Instagram says. “That said, the visual story you’re trying to tell should always come first, and we want to make it simple and fun for you to share moments just the way you want to.”
The company reveals that nearly 1/5 of uploaded photos and videos aren’t in square format. To retain the native aspect ratio, you can tap a new format icon to adjust the orientation to

Edelkrone has introduced its QuickReleaseONE, a device the company says is the first universal quick release on the market. The QuickReleaseONE screws into the tripod mount on the bottom of a camera, and attaches to the 1/4"-20 screw on any tripod plate. Read more

You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, perhaps not always. Redditor doowi1 created this humorous illustration showing the Google result for the exchange rate between pictures and words over the past half decade. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” they write.
Sadly, this isn’t an actual easter egg built into Google’s search engine, but we think the company should definitely consider adding it.

After reading Stephen Mayes’ TIME essay on the end of photography I couldn’t help but respond. To begin with, his main proposition is that “in the future there will be no such thing as a ‘straight photograph’” to which I’d add that I’m not sure there ever really has been much of a ‘straight photograph’ although in recent decades the public has become increasingly aware of this.
Ed Weston, photographic pioneer of American Modernism, referred to the photograph (in 1932) as a “willful distortion of fact,” and this was long before Photoshop… and the debate as to whether photography was a mechanical reproduction of the real world or whether it was a medium for artists is as old as the technology itself.
Photography has always been enmeshed with technology, but it has never been about it. The changes that Mayes is noticing are nothing new, even if they are dramatic

World champion sprinter Usain Bolt had a scary encounter with a clumsy cameraman at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing today. After winning the 200m race, Bolt was upended after the cameraman lost control of the Segway he was riding.
The incident happened during Bolt’s victory lap around Bird’s Nest stadium, where Bolt won 3 gold medals in 2008. As the cameraman rolled alongside the sprinter with a camera in hand, the Segway ran up onto a metal camera railing, changed direction, and zoomed right under Bolt’s legs.
Here’s what happened from a few different camera angles:
Bolt limped a bit after getting up, but he soon continued on his victory lap after checking to make sure the cameraman was okay.
“It took me out pretty well,” Bolt says. “But I’m OK. No issues, so I’m happy about it.”
The 29-year-old running is arguably the most popular sprinter in

Typically, tying a model up and throwing her to the bottom of a pool isn’t a recommended practice for both legal and moral reasons. However, this new music video for the song “Lydia” by Highly Suspect dares to do just that. You begin to realize something is a bit odd as the video rolls on and on — there are no cuts, meaning Marina Kazankova actually had to hold her breath during the entire 4-minute-plus video.
It turns out the woman, Marina Kazankova, is not only a model but also a world champion freediver. According to the production team, it took years to comb through the freediving community and find the field-experts needed to bring the concept to life. Specialists such as underwater camera operators, lead safety divers, and more were required to ensure the project was captured correctly while keeping all the participants safe.
“Everything you see is

As a former Art Producer, I have always been drawn to personal projects because they are the sole vision of the photographer and not an extension of an art director, photo editor, or graphic designer. This new column, “The Art of the Personal Project” will feature the personal projects of photographers using the Yodelist marketing database. You can read their blog at http://yodelist.wordpress.com. Projects are discovered online and submissions are not accepted.
Today’s featured photographer is: Ransom & Mitchell — the collaborative storytelling team of Digital Artist + Set / Prop maker Stacey Ransom and Director + Photographer Jason Mitchell.
How long have you been shooting?
We’ve been working together with a focus on still production as a team for six years. Prior to that, our main focus was narrative film production. We both had been working in or near the industry for over 20 years.
Stacey started out art directing photoshoots while working in-house for major retail brands like Limited Stores and Columbia Sportswear. She then was the VP Design Director in charge of visual design and branding at the VIA San Francisco office. Soon after she transitioned behind the camera, to get back in touch with her roots as a set and prop maker for photos and film.
Jason was a broadcast journalist in the Navy for seven years before moving to San Francisco. There he began working in studio and field production for corporate clients which evolved into freelance commercial production as a cinematographer and director.
Are you self-taught or photography school taught?
Interestingly enough, Stacey majored in photography at the Bauhaus-focused Columbus College of Art and Design, but it was the set design and art direction that really captured her interest. Jason first studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University, then decided to jump behind Continue reading "The Art of the Personal Project: Ransom & Mitchell"

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